


Playing Possum

by Ladytalon



Series: The Doctors Light [27]
Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: Animal Transformation, Bodyswap, F/M, Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-23
Updated: 2015-04-23
Packaged: 2018-03-25 10:38:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3807223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ladytalon/pseuds/Ladytalon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An unfortunate accident occurs, and Kimiyo sees a side of Arthur that is a definite surprise.  <b>EARTH-14</b></p>
            </blockquote>





	Playing Possum

  
  
  
t’s not every day that you get the news that your husband is now an opossum, and Kimiyo takes a moment to appreciate that fact before turning her attention towards the bearers of this particular news. Deadshot and Captain Boomerang actually _shuffle their feet_ when she looks at them, a sure sign of guilt that she zeroes in on. “I will now listen to your version of events for a total of ten seconds before I make you tell me exactly what is going on. Floyd? You’re up.”

“Well, you see, it’s actually a _funny story_ that I’ll bet would just-”

Kimiyo entertains a brief fantasy about pulling that mask away from his face and letting it snap back before she dismisses him with an irritate wave of her hand, turning to point at Digger. “You.”

“Stole a canister of gas from Desmond and it broke when Arthur ‘ported in and startled us,” he says breathlessly. This sounds closer to the truth, but she senses that they’re still not quite there yet. A few more pointed questions make Digger confess that while they _had_ stolen an unidentified organic compound from Blockbuster, it had been intentionally released when her genius of a husband appeared on the scene and insulted them to within an inch of their lives. This is nearer to the mark, but still…

“Please explain why Arthur would suddenly show up and offend you so very greatly,” Kimiyo says, feeling exceedingly unimpressed. “He always ’ports in and calls you a loser – not only is it _true_ and something you know anyway, it’s a common occurrence as well as close to a term of endearment as his emotional constipation will allow.”

Floyd toes the welcome mat and looks over at Boomerang. “Told you we should’ve just rang the doorbell and ran,” he mutters. His compatriot looks as though he’s inclined to agree. “Look, there was a… small misunderstanding…about the placement of evidence and things got out of hand.”

 _Placement of evidence?_ Kimiyo gazes at the guilty looks on the two men’s faces, and lifts her hands to rub her temples. “You are _not_ suggesting that you framed him for something.” Floyd opens his mouth to speak, but she shakes her head. “Not right now. Just tell me where he is and when you can change him back.” Digger makes a grand gesture towards the bushes beside their townhome, and Kimiyo lifts a hand to illuminate… “Is he actually foaming at the _mouth_?” She asks, peering closely at the supine form of her husband.

Deadshot seizes the moment while she’s distracted and makes like Eobard Thawne in his haste to speak. “We-couldn’t-catch-Arthur-since-he-went-totally-batshit-after-the-switch-but-he’s-still-downtown-and-we-gotta-go, bye! Dude, _run_.” The two idiots take off without bothering to tell her exactly where her dearly beloved opossum was last seen, and she’s contemplating hunting them down when her phone’s incoming text chime goes off. Kimiyo digs it out of her back pocket and sees that the cowards have sent her directions to an address in Star City. 

What _is_ that smell?

She’s unwilling to leave his body just lying around – after all, what if it wakes up and takes off? – so Kimiyo drags him…it… into the house and into the tub. It isn’t as if an opossum knows how to take a shower, but it stinks to high heaven and one can hope. “This is disgusting,” she tells the body. She’ll have to think up a name for it soon, because this is rapidly becoming too confusing for someone who hasn’t had nearly enough to drink. “If you pee on the floor, or worse, we are going to have one hell of a problem.” To this end, Kimiyo quickly decides to just take Arthur’s pants off and leave the toilet seat up; Yasu has an unfortunate habit of not aiming too well and it’s been two days since the bathroom was last cleaned, so there should be enough residual scent to give her newest houseguest the right idea. After locking both doors from the inside and teleporting to the kitchen where she leaves a big note telling the children that she’ll be home in an hour, Kimiyo snatches up her coat and goes husband hunting.

When she arrives at her destination, a suitably cliché dark alley, Kimiyo gets her phone out again and does a fast internet search regarding the Didelphimorph she now shares a last name with. “Dark secure areas,” she mutters to herself, putting her phone away again and glancing around. “Arthur? Are you still here?”

Only silence answers her, so she floods the alley with light and watches various creatures dive for cover. “Arthur!” Still nothing. Kimiyo looks around again, feeling a surge of annoyance for the whole ridiculous situation. “Arthur _Light!_ Get your little tail out here this instant, or I’m leaving you here to spend the night in the dumpster while your body stinks up the bathroom at home,” she snaps. “I’m not playing around so come _here_!” After a mildly rebellious second an opossum the size of a large housecat emerges from behind said dumpster, walking stiff-legged and looking incredibly offended.

It plants itself right in front of her and glares at her shoes. Kimiyo kneels down to look and slowly reaches out her hands, then inadvertently blurts out just how cute she thinks he is when the opossum looks up at her face. “ _Ohhhh_ , look at _youuuu_!”

Arthur hisses at her, scoots backwards out of arm’s reach, and it takes her ten more minutes to coax him into coming back over. “Look, I’m sorry but you’re adorable,” Kimiyo confesses after she wraps him up carefully, causing a soft growl to issue from within the folds of her coat. “We need to get home before the kids wake up and try to use the bathroom, and a certain someone could use a bath.” The silence is almost palpable, and when she lifts the bundle up she could swear she hears a tiny _harrumph_.

_ _ _ _

“I need to pee but I’m _not_ going in there,” Yasu complains as soon as she walks through the front door. In the background, she can hear some very strange sounds coming from the bathroom.

Kimiyo sighs and waves him towards the stairs. “Then go back up there and use _yours_ – aren’t you supposed to be in bed?”

Her son just grins at her and points to the bundle of fabric in her arms. “Is that really him? I heard Floyd talking about him.”

She sighs again and hands Arthur over. “Since you’re awake, go give him a bath upstairs. Don’t leave any towels on the floor once you’re done, and _no_ unusual hairstyles are allowed – he’s had a rough night.”

“Cool,” Yasu agrees. “C’mon, let’s go scare Imako!”

“Leave your sister alone.”

“Aw.”

Since she knows from experience that he’s just going to do it anyway, Kimiyo gives the only explanation that will possibly stop him. “If you wake her up now, she’ll insist upon using him as a teddy bear and then you’ve lost any chance you had at getting Arthur to show you where I hid the Cheetos.” The two head up the stairs, and she gives Buddy Baker a quick call before taking a deep breath and unlocking the door of the master bathroom. “Oh, God.”

While it’s not exactly as horrific as she’d feared, it’s still pretty bad – the towel bar has been ripped off the wall, every single drawer in their double vanity is hanging open with the contents spread far and wide, and Arthur’s body is huddled in the bathtub with the shower curtain wrapped around it. The weird, distressed warbling vocalizations have stopped but _that_ is simply because he fainted the second she appeared. “Right, you’ll need a name… Posse? No, what about Opie? Opus?” A sudden idea, brilliant in its sheer stupidity, nearly makes her start to laugh. Yes, that will work. Kimiyo sets the room to rights as quickly as she can, checking in the tub every so often for any telltale ear twitches. Thankfully he hasn’t peed anywhere but he still stinks from whatever he got into in that alley, so Kimiyo unwinds the shower curtain from the prostrate form and gives him a bath; she’s fairly certain that Buddy would never hold it above Arthur’s head, but better safe than sorry.

Her friend shows up before she’s really ready for him to – she’d planned on going upstairs and informing Arthur about their visitor, knowing that he’ll be upset about it – so she just tucks a few towels around the tub and goes to answer the door. “Oh, were you in the shower? I’m sorry,” Buddy says. “It sounded like you wanted me to come over right away…”

Kimiyo wearily waves away his apology. “I did, and thank you. He’s in the bathroom, if you’ll just follow me.”

“I haven’t run into too many of these human-to-animal situations so I’m not sure I can reverse it,” Buddy warns her. “You said on the phone that _gas_ caused this?”

“As far as I know, it’s something that Desmond was working on – probably one of his older experiments. Do you think you’ll be able to talk to them?” she asks, opening the bathroom door for him. “Arthur’s upstairs with Yasu… which is something I’ll need to go check on. At the bare minimum, _please_ tell Awesome how to use the toilet. This marriage has survived many things, but potty training my husband won’t be one of them.”

Buddy coughs and rubs his upper lip vigorously. “Awesome? Awesome Possum?”

She shrugs. “Well, we’ve got to call him _something_.”

“Gotcha. Listen, why don’t I try to communicate with…Awesome…and I’ll give you a shout once we’ve gone over the most important things? I’m thinking it’ll be a good idea to bring a picture of the kids down too, just so he can learn who he’s living with – he’s had a rough night so holding off on the actual introductions can wait.”

Kimiyo rests her hand upon her friend’s shoulder gratefully. “Thank you. Really, thank you so much.”

“Just so we’re clear, I get to harass him about it for at least a year.”

“A _month_.”

“Six months, and I tell Ellen.”

“Three months; Ellen knows nothing but the kids can come over to see Arthur on Friday. I’ll make sure he doesn’t bite them.”

They seal the deal with a handshake, and she heads upstairs to check on the progress of that bath. Kimiyo finds Arthur paddling around the tub desperately trying to avoid Yasu’s soapy hands, and shoos her son out of the room. “Go back to bed, it’s late and you have school tomorrow.”

“Aw.”

“ _Go_.” After he leaves, Kimiyo grabs up a bottle of fruit-scented shampoo that Imako favors. “Okay, mister. Get over here….and don’t you hiss at _me_ , you little pain in the ass.” She lathers him up and manages not to laugh at how funny he looks or his squeals of indignation when she dunks him under the water to rinse him. When he’s free of the stench of garbage at last, she dries him off and finally picks him up without needing to wrap him up in something. Kimiyo strokes his fur and he touches his nose to her cheek before snuggling beneath her chin with a sigh. “You really _are_ adorable,” she admits. “You even have a tiny little black patch of fur where your beard should be.”

Arthur moves to sit on her shoulder while she drains the tub and picks up all the towels the kids have strewn about, and they go downstairs to wait for Buddy to report back. Predictably, Arthur has a fit upon finding out that Animal Man knows all about his misfortune and is chittering at her furiously when the man in question shows up with Awesome in tow. “How’s it going, little guy? Having a great night?” Buddy teases.

Kimiyo grabs Arthur when he yowls angrily and paws at the tablecloth like a bull about to charge. “Don’t harass him,” she chides. “What’s the story with Awesome, here?”

“Okay, sorry. Guess he just brings out the worst in me,” Buddy says. “I’ve managed to convey to…Awesome…that he needs to stay with you because of the whole ‘mating’ situation. I may or may not have told him that he’d never get to change back to his own body if he doesn’t stick around, but the good news is that he should be able to communicate with Arthur.”

That’s a bit of good news. Still… “What do you mean, the _mating_ situation?”

“Well, since you two are now marsupial and wife” Buddy takes a moment to chuckle about how witty he is “he knows it’s in his best interest to stay here. He shouldn’t try to hump you, but be on the lookout just in case…it’s best to avoid becoming aroused in his presence.”

Kimiyo gazes across the table at Awesome, who has lifted her husband arm and is currently smelling his armpit. “Wow. I’m not sure how I’ll manage _that_.”

“Sarcasm is the truth’s bosom buddy,” Animal Man says, giving her a wink before looking down at Arthur. “Y’know? You might actually prefer him like this; I know a great place that sells those little halters for cats.”

Buddy leaves after a few more parting shots, and Arthur is so worked up that he spends the next thirty minutes leaping around the room growling and mauling the throw pillows. Kimiyo finally plucks him out of the air and places him on Awesome’s shoulder, who is growing so agitated that she fears another impromptu fainting spell. “You know? That wouldn’t have been so hard if you’d just keep your mouth shut around the Bakers. They’re both still angry about that ‘ _gossiping ability of a yapping poodle: activate!_ ’ comment you made last month.” Arthur lets out one last hiss, then starts ‘talking’ to the creature wearing his body and Kimiyo feels slightly relieved that they seem to be able to communicate; the noises Awesome is currently making are strange and borderline hilarious, so she makes a mental note to record it for posterity.

She leaves them to get acquainted while she fixes up the couch, because there is no way in hell that she’s sleeping next to either of them, and sets out some food. The two are still talking away, so Kimiyo sneaks away to the master bedroom and gets ready for bed – of course when she reaches out to turn off the bedside lamp, there’s a frenzied scratching at the door. “No,” she calls out. The scratching continues so she opens the door and looks down at the little opossum with his tail wrapped around his paws, looking up at her with the saddest eyes she’s ever seen. “You must have been practicing that,” Kimiyo says. “I’m not letting you in here.” Arthur settles down and puts his head on his paws, looking so pitiful that she feels her resolve begin to crumble. “ _No_ , Artie. You’ll get white hair all over everything.” Arthur rolls over onto his back, little paws waving in the air as he stares up at her, and _damn_ it but she can’t stand it any longer. “Okay, but you stay on your own pillow and I’m putting a towel down first.” He immediately scrambles up her robe, which sends her into an impromptu dance performance about how sharp opossum claws are.

“Remember,” she says sternly as she carries him to the bed. “Stay on _your_ pillow.” Arthur nods vigorously and plops down onto the hand towel Kimiyo spreads out, curling into a ball and displaying a _lot_ of teeth by yawning ostentatiously. She tickles him beneath the chin, right where the cute little patch of black hair is, and then she’s obliged to give him a tummy rub when the caress makes him roll onto his back again. “This is exactly what happens when you’re _human_ ,” Kimiyo teases gently. “Goodnight, Artie.” He touches his nose to her fingertips as she draws her hand back, and they both settle in for the night.

It’s no real surprise to find the pain in the ass on her side of the bed when she wakes up… only he’s not on her pillow, but curled up under her chin with that damned tail of his hitting her in the face. “Get away,” she orders, which simply makes him take his sweet time stretching before placing two very scratchy little paws on her cheek and looking down at her. Arthur’s jaws open wide in what can only be a very strange and unsettling smile, which is probably why he’s doing it, and some marsupial drool drops down onto the side of her nose. “ _Gross_.” He makes a hissing sound that resembles _heeheehee_ , licks her eyebrow, and saunters off to stretch some more and shove his butt in her face. Yes, he’s _definitely_ acting like himself. Arthur even looks in on her morning shower by hanging onto the curtain rod and making a strange clicking noise, the freak.

The kids are waiting outside their door when she walks through it, because they’ve seen Awesome Possum in action and want to know just when their stepfather will revert to normal. “He got the trashcan stuck on his head,” Imako informs her, “and he sits really weird.”

“There’s nothing to eat,” Yasu complains.

Imako’s eyes widen in sudden realization. “Yeah, who’s gonna make us food? We’ll starve to death!”

Kimiyo sighs as she takes in the devastation: exploded yogurt containers litter the dining room, the fridge door is hanging open with half its contents on the way to spoiling, and Awesome has definitely gotten that trashcan stuck on his head. “Don’t be silly. I’ll cook.” Another round of the sarcastic _heeheehee_ sound issues from around her ankles. “Don’t you laugh at _me_ , old man. You’ve got a wet nose and smell like bubble gum.”

“Onii-sama! I like your tail,” Imako cries out, and Kimiyo has the intense satisfaction of seeing Arthur’s beady little eyes widen in horror as the little girl swoops down on him. She sends Yasu to do something about the fridge while she helps Awesome with the trashcan situation, and soon has everyone lined up on the couch in front of the television eating breakfast while she finishes cleaning up. Imako is still clutching Arthur tightly, convinced that he’ll suffer some horrific accident if she eases her grip even a little bit. Kimiyo’s of the opinion that he looks like he could be on one of those _hang in there, baby!_ inspirational posters. “Can I bring him to school with me? I bet he’d like it.”

“You can’t take him to _school_ with you,” Yasu says witheringly. “He’s not a _pet_.”

“Well, he _looks_ like a pet.”

“He doesn’t wanna go to your dumb baby school anyhow. You could take Awesome, maybe, but if you take him and he gets stuck in another trashcan Arthur will take you to Lexmart and trade you for a new office chair.”

“He will _not!_ ”

“He will, too. He said he was thinking about it after that time you dyed his beard pink while he was taking a nap.”

Imako stomps her foot angrily. “That was Uncle Evan, and _he_ said-”

“ENOUGH!” Kimiyo hurls a half-eaten bagel into the trash for emphasis. “Imako, you are not taking Arthur to school. Yasu, _you_ are the one who’s being traded in but I’m the one that’s going to do it. Awesome - get off the back of that chair and Arthur, get your whiskers out of her cereal because yours is on the floor. I’m getting a lock for this damned refrigerator; what a _mess_.”

She finishes cleaning up after the manimal that’s still clinging to the back of the chair she just told him to get down from, and hears Imako giggling as she shows Arthur how to eat cold cereal in his new form. This apparently entails balancing a cereal bowl on her knees and lifting out a spoonful while Arthur balances on her legs and tries to lick the soggy cornflakes. Kimiyo glances over just in time to see Imako go into a spasm of laughter as Arthur’s claws get too ticklish, so her husband goes headfirst into the cereal bowl and ends up sneezing milk all over everything while Yasu laughs and takes a picture with his cellphone. Awesome, startled at the sudden loud laughter, faints and crashes to the floor.

Telling herself that now isn’t really the best time to have a complete nervous breakdown, Kimiyo takes a few deep breaths before picking up her phone. Kara is letting all her calls go to voicemail, a sure sign that she’s off trouncing someone who deserves it, but Tora picks up on the first ring and demands that she be allowed to Light-sit once the situation is made clear to her. “ _If you teleport us back, I can just give Guy a call and he can pick me up later – he’s due home from Oa later this afternoon!_ ” Ice gives Kimiyo several reminders of how good she is with animals and that, along with the fact that Arthur genuinely likes Tora, makes the decision rather easy. She teleports over to her friend’s apartment and sure enough, Tora is waiting on the edge of her seat with what looks like an overnight bag. “It’s just a few things that they’ll love to play with,” she explains cheerfully.

They? Kimiyo looks at her worriedly, then shakes her head – no, never mind. They ‘port back and Tora gives each child a hug, Arthur a scratch behind the ears, and Awesome a wide berth. “Is he okay?” she whispers loudly.

“He’ll be fine – Imako, shoes _on_ – as long as you don’t make any sudden movements. Look, he’s already coming ‘round.”

Arthur abandons his perch on Imako’s left shoulder and hops up on the overturned chair that Awesome tipped over earlier. “You are too cute, mister,” Ice tells him, chucking him under the chin. Arthur turns to give Kimiyo an _I told you so_ look, as if she hadn’t already assured him of his adorability just an hour earlier, and then turns back to watch Tora kneel down on the floor. “Hi there,” Tora says gently as Awesome opens his eyes and looks at her, confused by her ‘sudden’ appearance. “I’m Tora. What’s _your_ name?” she asks, speaking softly and trying to move as slowly as she can. Arthur chitters to the creature inhabiting his body, and Awesome takes a deep breath and lets out a honking noise that makes both children start laughing again. “Oh, my _gosh_ ,” Tora says as Awesome’s eyes glaze over and he hits the carpet once more. “Is that _normal?_ ”

“Count yourself lucky that he didn’t fart this time,” Kimiyo says, sending Yasu into gales of laughter.

Tora just nods understandingly. “That happens to Guy sometimes, too.”

While a bit of an overshare, Kimiyo can appreciate the sentiment. “I’ll just take the kids to school, then… would you mind if I stopped off at a friend of Artie’s on the way back? It shouldn’t take too long, and I think he’ll know what to do about this situation,” Kimiyo says.

“Oh, take your time! We’ll be fine, and it might even be fun,” her friend says. “Right, Arthur? You are so _cute_!”

The kids get dropped off safely, so Kimiyo pays Noah a visit unannounced. Calculator is sitting in his desk chair still wearing pajamas and eating a bowl of multicolored cereal, nearly inhaling it in surprise when she appears in front of him. Once the coughing fit subsides and the spluttering stops, Kimiyo asks about the progress being made – of course he knows exactly what she’s referring to, and of course he has the solution for ‘a reasonable price.’ “I’m not going to pay you for this, Noah.”

He looks at her over the rims of his glasses, and points his spoon at her. “But you _will_ , because that’s how it _works_.”

“No, because that’s not how _I_ work. Arthur’s your friend.”

Calculator looks sincerely puzzled. “What has friendship got to do with anything?”

“You’ve got to be kidding me. You have _never_ done anything out of the kindness of your heart before?”

“If it’s not an orgasm, it’s not free,” he returns blithely. “I will accept an exchange of services, however – the barter system is alive and well.”

Kimiyo folds her arms across her chest and taps her foot impatiently. “I’m waiting.”

Noah takes another spoonful of cereal, pushes up his glasses, and holds up one finger. “I hear that Imako’s ballet studio is just _full_ of single mothers who are in desperate need of male attention.” 

She has a pretty good idea who has planted that notion in his head, but forbears to mention what they both already know – that Arthur Light is, always has been, and will always _be_ full of shit. “Oh, yeah. Yes, of _course_. It’s… pretty sad, actually. Something needs to be done. Absolutely.”

He looks at her suspiciously. “Are you making fun of me?”

“Of course not, Noah,” she says with a straight face. “So, you want a date in exchange for returning my husband to normal.”

“That’s only half of it. See, what I want is-”

“I’m not going to tell you who Oracle really is, so just drop it.”

“Fine,” Noah huffs. “But now I want a date with two different moms.”

Kimiyo cocks her head to the side and taps her chin thoughtfully. “Why don’t I just make it three?”

“Now you’re definitely making fun of me,” he complains.

“Only because you make it so easy, Noah. Two dates it is, so change Arthur back.”

Noah holds up a restraining hand. “I can’t do it right away. It’ll take a little while, a day or maybe even a week, but I’m working on it. I got in touch with Blockbuster, and he’s agreed to share the formula but it has to be made fresh, as it were – the canisters that Boomer found _should_ have included the mixture for reversal, but they’d been improperly sealed so the solution was shot to hell due to a chemical imbalance. Turns out that too much fresh air _can_ be bad for you, right?” he grins in appreciation of his joke and she rolls her eyes. “Anyway, just… just make sure neither of them get into any accidents. Desmond mentioned that any sort of bodily trauma could permanently negate the switch. I’ll give you a call when it’s ready, and you can either swing by or I can bring it over.” They seal the deal with a handshake, and Noah reminds her to hold up her end of the bargain. “No fair telling ‘em that I’m a criminal mastermind.”

“But that’s your biggest selling point,” Kimiyo says sweetly.

Calculator looks extremely thoughtful. “You know, that could help me out…”

Returning home after stopping off at the grocery store, she finds Arthur being cuddled as if his life depended on it while Awesome scoots around on all fours playing with a variety of cat toys. Tora’s put the TV onto the Science Channel, but no one’s even pretending to watch it – especially not Guy Gardner, who’s sprawled out on the couch reading Imako’s latest copy of _Highlights_ magazine. “’Sup, Doc?” he asks when she walks through the door.

“Hello, Guy. Make yourself at home.”

He winks and points at her, clicking his tongue. “You got it, Kimbo.” Guy returns to perusing his magazine of choice while Kimiyo questions Tora about all that has happened in her absence, then sits up with a grin that tells her that she’s not going to like what will come out of his mouth next. “Sooo…you gonna hit that, right?”

Kimiyo blinks slowly. “Excuse me?”

“You know,” Guy says, gesturing to Awesome. “That.”

Tora looks up from tickling Arthur’s ears. “Ew.”

“C’mon, I bet you’ve at least _thought_ about it – hey buddy, don’t growl at _me_ ; if it happened to Kim you know you’d already be tappin’ it – ‘cause it’s him, only not exactly. It’d be like doin’ a vir-”

“Go back to Oa,” Kimiyo says loudly, cutting him off.

Guy’s grin widens. “You’re thinkin’ about it _now_ , huh?”

“Guy,” Tora interrupts. “No.”

“Okay, okay. He’d probably faint right off the bat anyhow,” Guy laughs. “Speakin’ of fainting, Kara did a real number on him when she came by earlier with them outfits-”

“Guy,” Tora wails. “ _No!_ ”

Kimiyo’s eyes narrow, Arthur’s ears prick, and they both look at the other couple suspiciously. “What outfits?” she asks calmly. Arthur looks as puzzled as an opossum is able, and jumps out of Tora’s arms to stand beside Kimiyo.

Tora looks miserable, and Guy’s face clearly shows that he’s made a mistake by mentioning it. _Too bad_. “We went upstairs because Arthur needed a bath – Awesome kind of threw up on him after all that greek yogurt – and Kara stopped by because she got your message and wanted to make sure you were okay. I’m sure Guy didn’t _mean_ to show her where Awesome was hiding…”

“Long story short? She left real quick, came back with weird outfits, and took pictures of that thing wearin’ ‘em,” Guy says sheepishly. “I thought it was funny, y’know, ‘cause it ain’t really Artie in there? But now I guess we’re the only ones who really _know_ that. I, uh, well… sorry, Kim.”

Arthur looks decidedly unhappy at this revelation, a feeling that Kimiyo shares. “I don’t have time to deal with this right now, I really don’t, so you two will be visiting Kara and confiscating all unauthorized photos. You can let her know to expect me later this evening,” she says, using her ‘Mom’ voice. 

Guy shrinks back into the cushions and nods quickly. “Gotcha, sure. I could give Babs a call, too, if ya want…”

“I _do_ want. You run along now, and think about what you’ve done,” Kimiyo finishes, wondering if she’s spreading it on too thick. Guy nods again and hurries to the door, nearly forgetting Tora in his haste to leave. “C’mon, babe. She might start yellin’ at us,” he mutters.

She endures two hours of supervillains – and some superheroes who should be more mature – bringing pet dishes, cat food, bejeweled collars, and embroidered leashes. If they _do_ decide to formally adopt Awesome Possum, a decision that will rest solely in the hands of the man whose life is being impacted most heavily by this, some of the things can be useful but the animal shelter will be receiving the bulk of it as an anonymous donation. When the kids return home, she sets them to sorting the items into two different piles after they’re finished with their homework. Arthur hitches a ride atop Imako’s head while Awesome tries to sneak a few cans of the donated cat food, struggling with the pop-tops before finally tearing into the bag of dry food. Yasu laughs until he cries when they find Awesome huddled in the closet eating the food as fast as he can before it’s taken away, but his mirth is short-lived when the vomiting begins and he’s the one chosen to clean it up.

Sitting in front of the tv for movie night, sharing popcorn with Arthur who’s curled up in her lap with the kids on either side and Awesome stretched out at her feet asleep, Kimiyo can almost forget that this isn’t how things normally are. Of course normally there isn’t a child lock on the fridge and all the cabinets aren’t taped shut, and there isn’t usually a toddler fence separating the dining room so that a man-sized opossum can sleep there, but still. Things are finally peaceful in the house and she’s secured a solution to this particular problem, but Kimiyo knows well that it won’t last – tomorrow is another day and Murphy’s Law spends a lot of time around her family. Peace is always in short supply, but she’ll take it when she can get it.

Plus, there are all those photos that she’d gotten Barbara Gordon to email to her after hacking into Kara’s computer – as soon as everyone’s asleep, Kimiyo’s definitely checking them out.

_fin_


End file.
